For the understanding of shrew communities, their coexistence and competition, the knowledge of diet partitioning among sympatric shrew species is crucial. In this study, the trophic niches of three coexisting Sorex species: S. alpinus, S. araneus and S. minutus were compared for the first time. Shrews were taken from a montane forest habitat in northern Slovenia (NS). A little known species, S. alpinus, fed mostly on Insecta (50 %) and Lumbricidae (25 %), as well as Lithobiomorpha, Araneae and Opiliones. Its diet differed significantly from the diet of S. araneus
and S. minutus. On the other hand, a nearly-perfect trophic niche overlap was found for S. araneus and S. minutus suggesting their great hindrance of competition for food. For comparison, S.araneus from a montane forest habitat in southern Slovenia (SS) was considered. Sorex araneus
from SS fed on 15 taxa, while the shrew diets in NS habitat were half
as diverse. In contrast to previous studies, the nearly-perfect overlap of trophic niches in S. araneus-S. minutus indicates that in montane
forest habitat, otherwise highly competitive shrews can share trophic niches.
We studied phenotypic relationships among six European Apodemus species (A. agrarius, A. epimelas, A. flavicollis, A. sylvaticus, A. uralensis, and A. alpicola) using landmark based morphometrics. Cartesian coordinates of 14 landmarks were recorded on the occlusal projection of upper molars from 175 specimens. Results revealed A. agrarius as the most distinct, having long and slender molars. Since primitive members of the genus (A. atavus, A. orientalis, A. dominans) are characterised by broad and robust molars, we conclude that A. agrarius is the most derived in this respect. Within the Sylvaemus subgenus/species group A. epimelas differed from the remaining four species in having more robust molars and a relatively longer second molar. Within the remaining four species two clusters emerged, although differences between them were slight. The flavicollis-sylvaticus tandem exhibited a relatively shorter second molar and more robust first molar. In five Sylvaemus, the robustness of molars correlated negatively with molar size, suggesting that between-species differences in molar shape result from allometric relations.